Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT) is the medical use of live maggots (fly larvae) for treating non-healing wounds.

In maggot debridement therapy (also known as maggot therapy, larva therapy, larval therapy, biodebridement or biosurgery), disinfected fly larvae are applied to the wound for 2 or 3 days within special dressings to keep them from migrating. The literature identifies three primary actions of medical grade maggots on wounds:

1. They clean the wounds by dissolving dead and infected tissue ("debridement");

During the Civil War in the United States, and World War I, battlefield physicians saw that soldiers' wounds that were infested wit

h maggots tended to heal better than non-infested wounds. Soon 'maggot therapy' was being used to clean festering and foul-smelling wounds. Maggots not only eat the rotten flesh, they also get rid of harmful bacteria in the wound.